• Most prior living kidney donors in the United States who later need a transplant receive one quickly, but some are not readily given the priority they were promised when they donated.
Insoo Hyun has proposed a framework for addressing ethical questions surrounding potentially revolutionary research on part-human, part-animal embryos, which can be produced when human stem cells are transplanted into animal embryos.
New research has shown how a cell surface molecule, Lymphotoxin β receptor, controls entry of T-cells into the thymus; and as such presents an opportunity to understanding why cancer patients who undergo bone-marrow transplant are slow to recover their immune system.
Scott & White Memorial Hospital – Temple broke ground on an innovative surgical sciences facility that will bring new, advanced procedures to patients in Central Texas.
The new facility, slated for opening summer 2018, will be adjacent to the hospital and will increase the hospital’s number of operating room suites from 26 to 32. Existing operating rooms within the hospital will be expanded and refreshed.
Some anxiety is perfectly normal for kidney transplant patients, but new research suggests that medical staff can help patients feel more at ease when they leave the hospital and that could decrease the chances they’ll be readmitted.
Large, nationwide study finds better psychological well-being, fewer graft vs. host disease symptoms and greater likelihood of returning to work among bone marrow transplant recipients
Scientists in Germany have developed a new approach that may prevent leukemia and lymphoma patients from developing graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) after therapeutic bone marrow transplants. The researchers describe the successful application of their strategy in mice in “Exogenous TNFR2 activation protects from acute GvHD via host T reg cell expansion,” which will be published online August 15 ahead of issue in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
A new drug therapy for peripheral T-cell lymphoma has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA and the University of Louisville will be the site of first-in-human study
Should children be considered for facial transplantation? While there are some special ethical and psychological concerns, these shouldn't rule out the possibility of performing face transplant in carefully selected children, according to an expert review in the August issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Today, researchers presented findings at the 68th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting that DNA found circulating in the bloodstream—known as cell-free DNA—can be used to identify liver transplant patients with acute rejection with greater accuracy than conventional liver function tests. This cell-free DNA test could help liver transplant patients receive crucial treatment for rejection faster, and has the potential to improve the prognosis of kidney and heart transplant patients as well.
With a shortage of donor organs, Mayo Clinic is exploring therapeutic strategies for patients with debilitating liver diseases. Researchers are testing a new approach to correct metabolic disorders without a whole organ transplant. Their findings appear in Science Translational Medicine.
An infusion of stem cells could help restore proper drainage for fluid-clogged eyes at risk for glaucoma. That's the upshot of a study led by a Veterans Affairs and University of Iowa team.
A multicenter team of researchers led by Barbara Murphy, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has identified a panel of genes which can help predict whether a transplanted kidney will later develop fibrosis, an injury which can cause the organ to fail.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that using repeated doses of an immunotherapy drug can restore a complete remission for some relapsed stem cell transplant recipients.
A new, minimally invasive procedure appears to be effective for many patients with the common eye disease Fuchs endothelial dystrophy (FED), without the potential side effects and cost of the current standard of care, a cornea transplant.
For athletes and highly active patients who sustain cartilage injuries to their knee, an osteochondral allograft transplantation can be a successful treatment option, according to research presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Colorado Springs, CO. The study showed these patients were consistently able to return to sport or recreational activities after the surgery, though frequently at a lower activity level.
Rush University Medical Center received the ELSO Award for Excellence in Life Support – the most prestigious designation in critical care by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. Rush is the only full service adult and pediatric academic medical center in Chicago and Illinois to receive the Designated Gold Level Center of Excellence designation.
A phase II clinical trial in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, suggests that transplanting human stem cells into the spinal cord may be done safely. The research is published in the June 29, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. While the study was not designed to determine whether the treatment was effective, researchers noted that it did not slow down the progression of the disease.
Last year, the most extensive clinical face transplant to date was successfully carried out at NYU Langone Medical Center. A complete report on this procedure—including the extensive organizational and training program created to prepare for it—is published in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Transplant Genomics Inc.® (TGI) is collaborating with the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine to develop, validate and commercialize diagnostic tests enabling personalized immunosuppression for solid organ transplant recipients.
In a first-of-its-kind procedure in the United States, a patient was able to avoid dialysis when surgeons simultaneously removed two diseased kidneys and also transplanted a kidney from a living donor – all as part of a 28-person paired kidney exchange
A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine faculty member has received $998,500 from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a new approach to improve the quality and quantity of limbs and tissues obtained from brain dead organ donors. Benefits also could be extended to the more standard transplanted organs (e.g. kidneys, hearts, and lungs).
A kidney transplantation means much more than good health to Jason E. Jones. The 53 year-old Hyde Park artist and Loyola Medicine patient draws daily creative inspiration from his chronic health experience. "My new kidney changed not only my life but my life's work," said Mr. Jones, who has been an artist for two decades. "My whole health journey became part of my artistic process and my daily experiences with medication and dialysis were incorporated into my artwork."
Up to 30 percent of people who receive organ transplants will develop diabetes, but researchers are unsure why. A new study in kidney transplant recipients suggests that patients with more inflammation prior to surgery are more likely to develop diabetes than those with less overall inflammation, and that a patient’s fat stores also play a role.
Researchers from the University of Chicago have shown that microbiota—the bacteria, viruses and other microbes living on the skin and in the digestive system—play an important role in the body’s ability to accept transplanted skin and other organs.
Montefiore Health System has a new collaborative program with its partner St. John’s Riverside Hospital to offer patients suffering from kidney, pancreas or liver disease an opportunity to be evaluated for transplantation at St. John’s Riverside Hospital by specialists from Montefiore Einstein Center for Transplantation.
New Living Donor Navigator Program tailored to African-Americans and a new Facebook app aim to increase access to living kidney transplants and reduce the number of patients awaiting transplant.
Early findings by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine suggest that the use of a second generation cancer drug, carfilzomib, may provide an improved approach for the reduction of antibodies in potential kidney transplant candidates.
Surgeons at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System have — for the first time — used an orphan drug to prevent rejection of a kidney transplanted from a living donor with a mismatched blood type.
Living donors are an increasingly important source of organs for kidney and liver transplantation, giving the world transplant community the responsibility to minimize the benefits to recipients while minimizing the risks to donors. The June issue of Transplantation, the official Journal of The Transplantation Society and the International Liver Transplantation Society, brings brought together the most current data and the best analysts to provide a whole issue devoted to living-donor transplantation. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
Transplant surgeons at UT Southwestern Medical Center have performed the first lung transplant in Texas using donated lungs treated with new technology known as ex-vivo lung perfusion.
Four years ago at the Donate Life Transplant Games of America, liver transplant patient Geno Bianchi won gold medals in volleyball and doubles bowling and a silver medal in basketball. Mr. Bianchi, 28, will be competing in the same three events in the 2016 Transplant Games June 10-15 in Cleveland. This year, he hopes to win three golds.
Simultaneous transplantation of a "composite" skull and scalp flap plus a kidney and pancreas—all from the same donor—provided excellent outcomes for a patient with a non-healing scalp defect and declining organ kidney and pancreas function, according to a report in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
A 13-year-old Norfolk girl is the first patient to receive a transplant in a unique pediatric liver transplant partnership between Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital.
In addition the technique to grow the blood vessels in a 3D scaffold cuts down on the risk of transplant rejection because it uses cells from the patient. It was developed by researchers from the University of Bath's Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, working with colleagues at Bristol Heart Institute.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have used a completely new preclinical technique and analysis of tissue from patients to show exactly what happens when certain patients with Parkinson's disease are restored as a result of nerve cell transplants. They have also identified what makes many of the transplant patients develop serious side effects in the form of involuntary movements.
In the late 1980s and over the 1990s, researchers at Lund University in Sweden pioneered the transplantation of new nerve cells into the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease. The outcomes proved for the first time that transplanted nerve cells can survive and function in the diseased human brain. Some patients showed marked improvement after the transplantation while others showed moderate or no relief of symptoms. A small number of patients suffered unwanted side-effects in the form of involuntary movements.
Researchers have safely transplanted stem cells derived from a patient’s skin to the back of the eye in an effort to restore vision. The research is being presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Seattle, Wash.
This ARVO Meeting showcases cutting-edge eye and vision science and an early glimpse into the latest advances in potential treatments for eye disease and blindness — often years ahead of their introduction to the clinic.